"Experinece teached at the cost of mistakes"

A motto I've lived by...

No, you don't 'need' to use CA exclusively. It's a bit of a mis-leader, because CA dries sooo fast, is usually the glue of choice for modellers, and that the plane (with CA) can be built litterally in a week-end. CA is also, not cheap! You can use Aliphatic glue (the yellow wood / carpenter's glue) but it dires slowly, like a few hours, as compared to a few seconds for CA! Each glue does have advantages, and disadvantages...

I think for first timers, it is important to follow and understand the instructions to the letter. that way, you know you won't make any mistakes, and won't second guess the process, andf thought eh building process, you'll learn a few steps that are 'standard' in building just about any airplane.

As some have said: "Measure twice, cut once". Same thing with glueing: Check twice, glue once. It's is also a good idea to dry fit everything before gluing. in some cases, you can go a few steps ahead, and see how the assembly will go together, to get an idea of what to expect (and to see if something is off before 'commiting' it with glue..)